Thing$ To Consider When Getting a Pet

As many of you know, I recently added one member to our little family, Lou.

Lou brings so much light into my life, but when deciding to get another animal, I forgot how expensive they can be. If you’re in my shoes and have recently moved into your first home and you are finally settling into adult life, you may be amongst the huge number of people who are thinking about adopting a furry family member of your own. This is such an exciting time, but here are some things to consider when deciding to get a pet.

Pets are amazing additions to your home because they provide you with entertainment, give you unconditional love and even provide a pillow for cold nights sitting on the sofa. But a question many people have, and the one I forgot to ask myself is, how much does it cost to have a pet?

Of course, the first question is what type of animal are you planning to buy? You should know by simple logic that adopting a dog is going to cost a heck of a lot more than buying a hamster. You might not need to take out the best personal loan you can find for this pleasure, but it sure the heck isn’t cheap.

Let’s imagine you are looking to buy a dog

You are going to need a lot of items to go along with your new pet. Things including food, a bed, toys, a leash and collar, water and food bowls, brushes, treats and doggy bags for when you go on walks. You’ll also need nonmaterial items such as: plus insurance, the adoption fee, and medical bills if they need to be spayed. These are the most basic essentials to buy and will cost you around $100 just for the initial investment, so keep this in mind.

Once you have all of this stuff, you can’t forget to take into account how much food they will eat each day so you can work out how often you need to buy new food. You might also want to invest in training if you buy a puppy and training is not cheap!

Now let’s imagine you buy a cat instead

If you’re buying a cat, which Ry and I chose to do first, there are different costs involved. Cats are a lot smaller than dogs so the food will be much cheaper, they also won’t require a leash because you can’t take a cat for a walk (or at least most people don’t). However, you do need to invest in all of the food, litter, equipment, toys and scratching posts they might want. Make sure you really do the research to understand how much food you will need and what toys cats like to play with.

Animals are not a cheap investment, however it can actually be a lot cheaper than you initially think as long as you shop smart and know what you are doing. For example, for food you are best off buying in bulk from a store such as Costco because it’s much cheaper than buying them in small batches.

Where toys are concerned, you’ll want to buy your dog a few toys immediately because they’ll want to play fetch and cuddle up with soft toys. Cats however are more fussy. Don’t spend a ton of money on toys until you know that your cat will be likely to play with them. Initially, a cardboard box and a dangling toy is perfectly sufficient. We spent so much money on toys when we first got Kyrie and some, to this day, she has never even touched.

The main message here is that you can afford to buy a pet as long as you take on the research and stay smart with you choices. Spend that time really delving into the cost of pets and you will be able to decide whether or not you are ready. We decided to budget correctly and now we have two animals and they bring so much joy to our lives!

Thanks so much for reading! What kinds of things do you have for your pets? How did you decide that you were ready?

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Disclaimer

This website is 100% my ideas, thoughts, and opinions about medicine, college, and life! Posts on this page should in no way be taken as professional advice and are not associated with any specific academic institution or hospital system! Thanks so much for reading, love you guys <3